Message overview
Message categorisation by sender
Some message types are sent by the NCTS while other message types are sent by traders.
Messages from the NCTS
| Code | Message |
|---|---|
| IE004 | Amendment Acceptance |
| IE009 | Invalidation Decision |
| IE019 | Discrepancies |
| IE022 | Notification To Amend Declaration |
| IE025 | Goods Release Notification |
| IE028 | MRN Allocated |
| IE029 | Release For Transit |
| IE035 | Recovery Notification |
| IE043 | Unloading Permission |
| IE045 | Write-Off Notification |
| IE051 | No Release For Transit |
| IE055 | Guarantee Not Valid |
| IE056 | Rejection From Office Of Departure |
| IE057 | Rejection From Office Of Destination |
| IE060 | Control Decision Notification |
| IE182 | Forwarded Incident Notification To ED |
| IE928 | Positive Acknowledge |
Messages from traders
| Code | Message |
|---|---|
| IE007 | Arrival Notification |
| IE013 | Declaration Amendment |
| IE014 | Declaration Invalidation Request |
| IE015 | Declaration Data |
| IE044 | Unloading Remarks |
| IE170 | Presentation Notification For The Pre-Lodged Declaration |
Message identification, sender and recipient guidelines
There are guidelines for entering message sender and recipient details in arrivals and departures messages in the NCTS Trader Test environment that will also apply to the production version of the UK NCTS service.
Message identification
When submitting a declaration (IE015) using the same LRN as a previously submitted declaration (IE015), please ensure a unique reference is provided in the Message Identification field (IE015). This is to ensure that NCTS can correctly distinguish between movements when sending response messages (and movements are not conflated in error).
A unique reference is any string of alphanumeric characters within the 35 character limit which has not been supplied in this data field for another IE015.
Message sender
When specifying the message sender of an arrival or departure message, you can enter alphanumeric format data up to 35 characters (‘an..35‘).
We recommend that you should enter the EORI number of the organisation (‘the declarant‘) that is physically sending the message. Alternatively, if you do not know the EORI number of the declarant, you can use the EORI number of the transit movement or prompt for it.
Message recipient
When specifying the message recipient of an arrival message for a GB to XI or XI to GB transit movement, you must enter ‘NTA‘ and the correct country code of the actual office of destination (either NTA.GB or NTA.XI, whichever is applicable), which could be different from the declared office of destination.
When specifying the message recipient of a departure message for a GB to XI or XI to GB transit movement, you must enter ‘NTA‘ and the correct country code of the office of departure (either NTA.GB or NTA.XI, whichever is applicable).
If any of your transit movements involve other CTC member countries, you must enter NTA and any other information advised by each member country in its NCTS documentation. Please note that the rules used by other CTC members for message recipient might be different from those used by the UK.
For more information entering message recipient details in messages for GB to XI or XI to GB transit movements, see CTC Traders API testing guide
Message details
Message type details are as follows:
- characteristics of the data groups belonging to a message: sequence, number of repetitions, and a status value to indicate if a data group is one of the folllowing:
- mandatory (‘R’: Required)
- optional (‘O’: Optional)
- conditional (‘D’: Dependent)
- do not use (‘N’: Not Usable)
- characteristics of the data items belonging to a data group: sequence, number of repetitions, type, length, and a value to indicate if a data item is one of the folllowing:
- mandatory (‘R’: Required)
- optional (‘O’: Optional)
- conditional (‘D’: Dependent)
- data group nesting is shown with dashes, which means that a data group may contain not only data items but also other groups of data.
- links to applicable NCTS code lists:
- each link downloads a zip file from a European Commission website
- the code lists are updated regularly
- consider setting up an automated way to download the files regularly and integrate them with your software
- links to applicable rules and conditions
- header elements (XML fields that can contain other XML fields) are highlighted in bold
Note: If you use a data group with priority ‘N’ in a message, NCTS will reject the message.
Accessing the XML schemas
The XML schemas are available on GitHub.
You can view the XML schema for a particular message type as follows:
- Navigate to the required message type listed in this section.
- Under the XML Root heading in the table, click the link.
The selected XML schema is displayed in GitHub.